A puncture wound in a blood vessel typically results from a surgical treatment, such as treatment of a vascular disease, such as atherosclerosis.
It is known to close such a wound with a two-piece plug device having a distal member that is inserted in the vessel and a proximal member that is tightened towards the distal member with the vessel wall, i.e. the edge of the wound, clamped between the plug members.
Such plugs are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,350,399 and 5,342,393, respectively. In both these inventions, however, the retracting means used to transfer a holding force to the intra-arterial closure member is integrally formed with the intra-arterial closure member and is therefore formed of the same material. This limits the possibilities to manipulate the intra-arterial closure member with a tool.
Furthermore, tools presently known are complicated to handle in that they require numerous different grips to perform the closing of the wound.
They also require the complete attention from the operator in order to avoid misplacement of the closure members. A misplaced closure plug is difficult to remove, and could even call for surgery.
Furthermore, it is essential not to stress the wound too hard in order to avoid rupture of the wound edge. At the same time it is essential to apply a sufficient mating force to the closure members to obtain a leakage-free closing of the wound.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and a system that offers a simple and safe closing of a punctured vessel.